Uniform growth of high-concentration MoS2 nanoflakes on plasma treated carbon nanotube sheet.

• Direct growth of high-concentration MoS 2 nanoflakes on carbon nanotube sheet is realized. • Plasma treatment can induce de-bundling and activation of carbon nanotube bundles. • Plasma activation of CNT sheet is necessary to deposit high-concentration MoS 2 nanoflakes. • Interfaces of MoS 2 and CNT at the atomic scale is investigated. In this report, we demonstrate a novel two-step approach that is capable of growing uniform high-concentration MoS 2 nanoflakes on the carbon nanotube (CNT) sheet substrate. The CNT sheet is simply activated by the oxygen plasma to separate large CNT bundles and to create more active surface sites. A typical chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process is employed, enabling the direct growth of MoS 2 nanoflakes on the activated CNT substrate. Morphologies and structures of MoS 2 /CNT nanohybrid are characterized by SEM/EDS, high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) and Raman spectroscopy. Our results suggest that the plasma treatment of CNT sheet is critical to obtain well-dispersed large quantity of MoS 2 nanoflakes on CNT assemblies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]